1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communication systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless communication systems rely on data sharing arrangements to allow multiple users to share common resources. As shown in FIG. 1, the wireless system 100 has a plurality of base stations 102, each base station 102 acting as a communications hub for a particular coverage area, or sector 104.
Active users 106 within a given sector 104 share common resources. Each base station 102 may employ a resource assignment algorithm to ensure that the resources are fairly distributed among the users 106. Wireless systems often use a time slot-based resource sharing channel in a forward link of the system to allocate resources. More particularly, a scheduler algorithm in the base station 102 allocates time slot resources to all active users 106 in the sector 104, assigning one user 106 per time slot.
If quality of service (QoS) requirements are imposed in the wireless system, control over fair resource distribution can become more difficult. As is known in the art, QoS requirements ensure that users receive a minimum acceptable level of service. The scheduler will try to meet the QoS requirements regardless of operating conditions, such as RF conditions, encountered by each user. Due to the dynamics of each user's operation condition, however, users in poor operation conditions may degrade overall utilization of system resources in the wireless system. Large portions of the time slot's resources may be allocated to users in poor operation conditions to help those users reach their QoS requirements, but doing so takes resources away from other users and degrade their experience. This reallocation can cause the entire system to have poor performance, especially if taking resources away from users in good conditions fails to improve service for users in poor conditions. Resource overuse by “resource hoggers,” such as users in poor conditions, can offset any expected benefits of enforcing QoS requirements in a time-based resource sharing system.
There is a desire for a system that can control resource overuse in a time-slot division wireless communication system with QoS enforcement.